Thermodynamic bounds on time-reversal asymmetry

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new observable to quantify the irreversibility of stochastic systems and establishes thermodynamic bounds on time-reversal asymmetry related to system driving forces.

Contribution

It presents a novel measure of time-reversal asymmetry and derives bounds linking this measure to thermodynamic quantities like cycle affinity.

Findings

Bound on time-reversal asymmetry in terms of cycle affinity

Thermodynamic bounds on directed flux asymmetry

Limits on finite-time cross-correlation asymmetry

Abstract

Quantifying irreversibility of a system using finite information constitutes a major challenge in stochastic thermodynamics. We introduce an observable that measures the time-reversal asymmetry between two states after a given time lag. Our central result is a bound on the time-reversal asymmetry in terms of the total cycle affinity driving the system out of equilibrium. This result leads to further thermodynamic bounds on the asymmetry of directed fluxes; on the asymmetry of finite-time cross-correlations; and on the cycle affinity of coarse-grained dynamics.